The present invention relates to data storage systems using media cartridges and media libraries, and more particularly, to a media mobility unit for moving media cartridges between media libraries.
Media libraries serve as practical solutions to the massive data storage and redundancy requirements of modern computing operations. Media libraries host a finite number of media volumes for storing data, and typically these volumes are classified as tape or disk, depending on the data storage format. In order to meet access and redundancy requirements, many operations employ multiple libraries at multiple access points. When using a plurality of access points without universal or shared accessibility, physical volumes are occasionally unmounted from one media library and mounted to another in order to provide access to the requested volume. In addition, new volumes may be occasionally be used to replace full volumes and permit storage of additional new data.
Typically, these physical movements are performed by human technicians manually entering a command to unmount a source volume from a source library, receiving the requested volume from the source library, carrying the source volume to a destination library, placing the source volume in a destination library receptacle, and entering a command to mount the source volume in the destination library.
Some recent approaches have endeavored to automate the process of unmounting, receiving, transferring, and mounting volumes from one media library to another by way of mechanical arms, tracks, and/or rails to transfer volumes between two libraries. In these approaches, however, media libraries must be in sufficiently close physical proximity such that the arm, track, and/or rails may span the distance between source and destination media libraries. This proximity requirement places physical limits on the arrangement of media libraries in a physical space. In addition, since each library must be attached to an arm, track, or railing as well as a mechanism for moving media along the arm, track, or railing, it can be very expensive to replace existing media libraries with those having the requisite mobility mechanisms. Even if media libraries may be retrofit with such mobility devices, interfacing multiple libraries becomes increasingly problematic as the number of libraries increases, again due in large part to spatial limitations.
However, as computational resources and data security continue to accrue significance in this information age, current approaches to efficiently move media volumes between media libraries is becoming increasingly unsuitable for evolving performance requirements. Therefore, it would be a useful endeavor to develop a system and method for providing mobility to a network of media libraries without incurring the enormous cost of replacing current libraries or the spatial limitations imposed by permanent tracks, arms, and/or rails connecting media libraries in physical proximity. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to eliminate the spatial limitations and proximity requirements of currently envisioned media mobility systems.